Desert Tortoise Natural Area

California City Correctional Facility (CAC) is a secure facility owned by CoreCivic. It was formerly staffed and operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a men's level II (low-medium) security prison. The facility was built on speculation, without any customer contract to fill it. Construction was completed in 1998. Beginning in 2006, it housed federal inmates for the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal contract included daily transportation to the San Diego County Courthouse and Southern Nevada Correctional Center, and as-needed to JPATS-Victorville ("Con Air"). The per-diem rate in 2010 was $77.50 per prisoner, decreasing to $58.00 as the count increased. The federal use of the facility ended in 2013. In response to a federal order to reduce overcrowding at the state's prison facilities, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation started leasing the facility in 2013 for $28.5 million yearly. Former guards, previously privately contracted, transferred to become state correctional officers after eight weeks of training. CAC was the only CDCR state prison under this arrangement; all other state prisons are both owned and operated by CDCR. All inmates were moved out by November 2023. The state terminated its lease so the prison will be effectively closed by March 2024.

California City is a city located in northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, California, United States. It is 100 miles (160 km) north of the city of Los Angeles, and the population was 14,973 at the 2020 census. Covering 203.63 square miles (527.4 km2), California City has the third-largest land area of any city in the state of California (behind San Diego and Los Angeles), and is the largest city in California, by land area, that is not a county seat. It is the 43rd-largest city in the United States by land area. Much of the city's residents are employed at Edwards Air Force Base, which is located 18 miles (29 km) southeast of the city. Other major employers are the California City Correctional Center (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation), Mojave Air and Space Port (and its flight test facility) and the Hyundai/Kia Proving Grounds, located in the rural southwestern part of the city. California City also has a park, a PGA golf course, and a municipal airport.

California City Municipal Airport (FAA LID: L71) is located in the city of California City, in the Fremont Valley of Kern County, California.

North Edwards (formerly, Edgemont Acres and North Muroc) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California. Situated in the Mojave Desert, North Edwards is located about 7.2 miles (11.6 km) north-east of Edwards Air Force Base, at an elevation of 2,293 feet (699 m). As of the 2020 census it had a population of 1,054.

Balls 8 is a NASA Boeing NB-52B mothership which was retired in 2004 after almost 50 years of flying service with NASA. The aircraft is famous for dropping the X-15 aerospace research vehicle on 106 of the 199 X-15 program flights.

North Muroc is a former settlement in Kern County, California. It was located 8 miles (13 km) south-southeast of Castle Butte, at an elevation of 2290 feet (698 m). North Muroc still appeared on maps as of 1947.

Last Chance Canyon is a canyon in the El Paso Mountains near Johannesburg, California. The canyon runs from Saltdale in the south to Black Mountain in the north; part of it lies within Red Rock Canyon State Park. The canyon includes a variety of archaeological sites, including pictographs, villages, rock shelters, mills, and quarries. Historic sites such as gold mining camps are also located in the canyon. The canyon is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and is open for recreational use. Hiking, camping, and 4-wheel drive vehicles are permitted in most parts of the canyon. The canyon was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1972.

The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical research. AFRC operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world and is known for many aviation firsts, including supporting the first crewed airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight (Bell X-1), highest speed by a crewed, powered aircraft (North American X-15), the first pure digital fly-by-wire aircraft (F-8 DFBW), and many others. AFRC operated a second site next to Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, known as Building 703, once the former Rockwell International/North American Aviation production facility. There, AFRC housed and operated several of NASA's Science Mission Directorate aircraft including SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), a DC-8 Flying Laboratory, a Gulfstream C-20A UAVSAR and ER-2 High Altitude Platform. In 2024, following the retirements of SOFIA and the DC-8, NASA vacated Building 703, as the continued lease of the large hangar was no longer justified or a prudent use of taxpayer dollars. As of 2023, Bradley Flick is the center's director. Established as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Muroc Flight Test Unit (1946), the center was subsequently known as the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station (1949), the NACA High-Speed Flight Station (1954), the NASA High-Speed Flight Station (1958) and the NASA Flight Research Center (1959). On 26 March 1976, the center was renamed the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) after Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who died in office as NASA's deputy administrator in 1965 and Joseph Sweetman Ames, who was an eminent physicist, and served as president of Johns Hopkins University. The facility took its current name on 1 March 2014, honoring Neil Armstrong, a former test pilot at the center and the first human being to walk on the Moon. AFRC was the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one landed at Edwards. The center long operated the oldest B-52 Stratofortress bomber, a B-52B (dubbed Balls 8 after its tail number, 008) that had been converted to a drop test aircraft. 008 dropped many supersonic test vehicles, from the X-15 to its last research program, the hypersonic X-43A, powered by a Pegasus rocket. Retired in 2004, the aircraft is on display near Edwards' North Gate.

Wonder Acres is a settlement in the western Mojave Desert, within eastern Kern County, southern California, in the United States. It is located northeast of the city of Mojave, on California State Route 14 at the intersection with California City Boulevard. It is 5 miles (8.0 km) west of California City, and 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Cache Creek.

Red Rock Canyon State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of California which features scenic desert cliffs, buttes and spectacular rock formations. The park consists of approximately 27,000 acres (110 km2) within the Mojave Sector of the Tehachapi District of the California State Park System, and is located along State Highway 14 in Kern County, about 80 miles (129 km) east of Bakersfield and 25 miles (40 km) north of Mojave, where the southernmost tip of the Sierra Nevada converges with the El Paso Mountains. Each tributary canyon is unique, with vivid colors due to alternate layers of white clay and red sandstone, further accented by pink volcanic rocks and brown lava formations. The canyon was formed 3 million years ago. After wet winters, the park's floral displays are notable. Three overlapping desert ecosystems provide for the wildlife that includes eagles, falcons, roadrunners, hawks, coyotes, kit foxes, bobcats, lizards, mice and squirrels. Red Rock Canyon provides magnificent views of the pristine desert landscape, includes two natural preserves, and offers, among other recreational activities, camping, sightseeing, equestrian activities, hiking, and opportunities for solitude.

The historical Burro Schmidt Tunnel is located in the El Paso Mountains of the northern Mojave Desert, in eastern Kern County, southern California. It is a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) mining tunnel dug with hand tools and dynamite over a 38-year period by William "Burro" H. Schmidt (1871–1954). in the El Paso Mountains of eastern California. The tunnel is below the summit of a 4,400-foot (1,300 m) mountain. Its southern adit (portal) overlooks the Fremont Valley, Koehn Dry Lake, and the ghost towns of Garlock and Saltdale.

Edwards (formerly, Muroc and Wherry Housing) is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California. It is located 16 miles (26 km) east-southeast of Mojave, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster, 15 miles (24 km) east of Rosamond, and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of California City at an elevation of 2,356 feet (718 m). The area was originally a housing site for the air force base that surrounds it. The place name changed to Edwards in 1951 (after the base was renamed and a post office transferred from Muroc was established). It is part of the Edwards Air Force Base reservation.